KNOE's digital transmitter islocated south of Monroe in Columbia, Louisiana; the station also operates a low-powered translator, K18AB in El Dorado, Arkansas, which rebroadcasts KNOE's digital signal in high definition. Even though the translator is broadcast on channel 18, PSIP displays K18AB under the virtual channels 8.1 and 8.2, respectively.

Digital television

On February 17, 2009, KNOE-TV turned off its analog signal and its digital signal on channel 7 and started transmitting in digital on channel 8.

History

KNOE-TV went on the air in 1953. Its facilities are located on Oliver Road north of Louisville Avenue in Monroe.[1] It remains the oldest surviving station in the northern part of the state. James A. Noe, Sr., former governor of Louisiana, owned the television station as well as KNOE Radio (AM 540, now KMLB, and FM 101.9.

The station affiliated with all four television networks of the "golden age": CBS, NBC, ABC and DuMont. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.[2] Even when rival station KTVE became a primary ABC affiliate, KNOE continued to air ABC programming until 1972, and it also aired NBC programming on a secondary basis until KLAA (now KARD) signed on in 1974.[3]

The Noe family owned the station until 2007, when it was sold to Dallas-based Hoak Media Corporation.[4][5][6][7] The sale closed on October 3 of that year. The family had already sold KNOE AM to Holladay Broadcasting in November 2006,[8] and would sell KNOE-FM to them the following year.[9][10] The sale of the stations followed the death of Noe's son, James Albert "Jimmie" Noe Jr., of cancer in 2005,[11] in which it was decided by the family to leave the broadcasting business.[12] On August 25, 2010, KNOE started broadcasting syndicated programing in high definition.

Programming

Syndicated programming on KNOE includes: Inside Edition, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Dr. Phil, and Judge Judy. Prior to 2006, Monroe was one of the few television markets that aired Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune on different stations, as Wheel aired on KNOE and Jeopardy! on KTVE. The two programs were in direct competition with each other as the respective programs aired at 6:30 PM local time on each station.

News operation

KNOE-TV has been the dominant news station in the Ark-La-Miss for more than a quarter-century. It has won numerous state, regional and national journalism awards, including the 2008 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for News Director Taylor Henry's investigative series on rogue members of the Louisiana National Guard who looted stores they were deployed to protect during Katrina.

On November 1, 2010, KNOE debuted a new news set, fit for high definition broadcast. On January 17, 2011 KNOE began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition, becoming the first station in the Ark-La-Miss region to do so; in-studio as well as in the field.

^"Monroe TV, radio stations owner James Noe, 77, dies". The Baton Rouge Advocate. July 12, 2005. "Jimmie Noe, as he was known, spent nearly four decades running the stations founded by his father, former Louisiana Gov. James A. Noe."

1KAQY, KFQX and KXJB-TV are owned by Parker Broadcasting and operated by Hoak under a local marketing agreement.2KAUZ-TV is operated by Drewry Communications Group (owner of KSWO-TV) under a shared services agreement